How Old Can You Be to Still Get the GI Bill If You’re Not In School Already?

Q: How old can you be to still get the GI Bill if you’re not in school already? What is the age limit?

A: It depends if you are talking about using your own GI Bill or Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits that were transferred benefits to you.

If you earned your own GI Bill, then there isn’t an age limit, but instead a time limit that you must use your GI Bill by or lose it. For the Montgomery GI Bill, that delimitation date is 10 years from your last date of discharge; 15 years if you are using the Post 9/11 GI Bill.

If you received Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits from a parent, then you can start using your benefits at age 18 or when you graduate from high school if less than 18. You must finish using your benefits by age 26 or you lose any remaining unused benefits.

As an alternative to losing benefits, your sponsor who transferred the benefits to you, could revoke what is left unused and would otherwise be lost. That person could then use the benefits or transfer them to a younger sibling of yours that has already received benefits while the sponsor was still serving.

What would not be possible is if your sponsor is out of the military and wanted to transfer benefits to a younger sibling of yours that was born after the sponsor was no longer serving.